How to write - and how to avoid writer's block
5 tips for getting started writing when it’s not easy
If you’ve been following the team-writing process I outlined a couple of weeks ago, you’ll reach a point where you have an assignment brief (however brief it may be) and an outline. Now, you’re ready to write.
In some ways, this part should be the easiest. You’re well-prepared, and you’re not staring down a blank page. Quite the contrary: My team-writing process gives you a roadmap that spells out exactly where the writing needs to go and what needs to happen at each point.
What you need to do now is fairly straightforward:
Write through the outline until you have a complete first draft
Take a break (get a cup of tea, or let the draft sit overnight)
Go through your draft line by line to revise it and clean it up as necessary
Share the draft with the rest of your team
No problem, right?
In fact, a lot of the writing advice you’ll find in books and online won’t apply at this point. With a well-structured team-writing process, the challenge at this point isn’t so much about discovering your voice or getting the creative juices flowing: It’s more about filling in the outline and creating the first draft of what the client wants.
In the simplest case, you start at the top of the outline and go through it section by section, writing paragraphs that correspond to each bulleted (or numbered) item. When you reach the end, you’re done with the first rough draft.
If the team has prepared a good outline, you should have everything you need to create this draft right there: Examples, sources, references, links, a writing style guide, and so forth. Ideally, the team has already spelled out the specifications for what you’re creating in the assignment brief, so you know what length you’re aiming for, along with any other essential characteristics, such as style, guidance on headlines and subheads, and so forth.
Still, problems do crop up. So here are some tips for writing through your outline with minimal hassle.
Write the way you speak. Business writing tends to get too stiff and formal, with many complex sentences, dependent clauses, and excessive passive voice. I think this is because people get it into their heads that they need to de-personalize the copy or write in a more “official” style because they're writing for an organization. This never works out well.
Instead, start your writing by putting down on the page, as directly as you can, what you would tell a friend about the topic. If it helps, imagine telling your mother, your significant other, or a curious and intelligent niece or nephew about it. Leave out the casual chitchat phrases you’d put into a normal conversation, but otherwise, put what you’d say straight onto the page.
If it’s too weird to imagine talking to someone or too difficult to translate that into typing, imagine writing an email to a friend or coworker you like and trust.
Some people I know find it helpful to speak aloud as they write — to test sentences out by walking around and saying them out loud. When they sound right, they sit back at the computer and start typing.
Other people (including myself) have found it’s sometimes easier to dictate a section of text. Turn on your computer’s speech-to-text dictation and just start talking to it.
…
Hey there! I’ve moved my newsletter to a new website. To read the rest of these tips, please click through to the rest of this post here:
All good advice. As Dylan also says, it provides a good way to get started and to focus. I have used some of the techniques that he suggests over 50 years of pounding a keyboard and producing millions of words. The techniques work.